Before corporate governance shamed the inner business leader in us all, sexual harassment managed to stain many a soul from the boardroom to the back room.

With both, abuses of power that oozed management malfeasance were played out in very public dramas. Harassment horrors also fueled court cases that resulted in the legal and regulatory controls now embedded in most organizations. Everybody had to clean up their act: Wall Street traders, Middle America's factories and federal, state and municipal government bodies.

Some say the corporate governance mess got its start in the dot.com bubble of higher and higher stock prices for all. Sexual harassment was all about the revolution, man. The infusion of women in the workplace taking what were then non-traditional roles created the chaos that allowed and tolerated, and in some cases, encouraged the gross display of piggy behavior. During the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s, senior management often gave its de facto blessing to the grope-n-grin mindset by refusing to create penalties. Women were recruited to the team, but the playing rules were not adjusted.

Now, 25 years and scores of lawsuits later, the big juicy headlines about sexual harassment no longer pop up with their former robust frequency in the business environment. Most employers "get it." They have a game plan. Sexual harassment behaviors sprout severe penalties to employees, including dismissal. Explicit policies spell out as well as rule out what will and will not be tolerated. Basically, just a whiff of inappropriate behavior is enough to pull the termination trigger on the boys and girls who frankly cannot keep their mouths shut or their hands to themselves.

This corporate crackdown didn't just happen because telling a bunch of high-risk employees to keep their zippers closed was an ethical and moral no-brainer. What drove this replay was more the need to avoid costly law proceedings that eradicate profits and brand reputation, and thus shareholder value. Management had to clean up its act to mitigate a barrage of spiraling operational risks with costly results.

Speaking of teams, while the sexual discrimination epidemic may have lost some of its potency, it is by no means eradicated. Today's scandals stem from sporting arenas, where the promise of billion-jillion dollar contracts that reward alleged superstar abilities give license to sweaty fumbles outside the locker room. Student athletics has been turned on its collective ear as allegations mount of sex parties as a recruitment tool. Again, the shame. Again, the horror. Again, the promises to end once and for all. Let's hope they do.

Meanwhile, there are many who will argue, and I am one, that while sexual harassment in the workplace has toned down, sex-based wage discrimination has not. Many organizational cultures, while tooting the diversity horn and waving the rainbow flag, continue to foster institutional roadblocks that prevent women from earning the same paycheck as their male colleagues of equal skill. Hormones continue to overshadow performance as female employees strive for acceptance at the top, not just in staff but in board roles.

Which brings us back to the corporate governance issue. With the exception of Martha Stewart, most of the defendants in these big-ticket trials are male. Most of the former defendants who pled out to become government witnesses are male. And most of the folks who replaced these boyos back at the executive ranch at what remains of their tattered companies are, SURPRISE, male. Just in case I did not spell this out clearly, here's what I am trying to say: The players on these teams are all boys. And continue to be.

If the economic theory of supply and demand that is the basis of our capital-loving economy were to hold true, the fallout of the corporate governance catfights would be the opportunity to replace these outed top tiers by tapping the next level of leadership. Which, if all the jive-talking about diversity hiring and promotion is true, should be reflective of candidates who are not just fair-haired boys groomed by older fair-haired boys for their next role.

But it does not appear that the sands of time are shifting to a more inclusive management team, at least not just yet. In another 25 years, I will be retired. Most likely, so will you. Let's hope we've been able to level the playing field once and for all by then. I'm up for the fight if you are.